Monthly Archives: August 2018

crafts, Uncategorized

Colorful egg dish

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A few weeks ago, we went to a sort of estate sale. ‘Sort of’ because no one had died, they were just downsizing. One of the things we picked up was a deviled eggs plate- one of those plates with egg shaped hollows for eggs. We bought it for a friend who always makes deviled eggs for herself and her friends.

It’s a practical and cute dish, but when we handed it to her I could tell she was less than thrilled. This is a woman who dies her hair rainbow, after all. So I said, you can use nailpolish and color it!

And she did. And it looked awesome. And I looked at my plain egg dish and thought, ‘you came up with that idea, can’t you do it too?’ And thus, this post. 🙂

and her art page is here, so you can see for yourself why that was obviously too boring…

Above is my plate. 🙂 Here is my nailpolish collection.

So, first, to choose nice spring colors…

And here it is with one coat of each color I chose. Some of these polishes are definitely higher quality! I will let these dry and do another coat (or 10).

Ok, three coats, and looking, well, sloppy. Now to clean them up and add details.

So far I have learned that the cheapo LA Girl and Wet n Wild work great compared to some of my more expensive polishes. And I have learned that this stuff works wonders. The streaks stopped when I added two drops to the polishes. So don’t throw out clumpy polish! Give it new life, and throw it out because you don’t like it, not because it went bad. 😉

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So, I have been using my manicure tools to paint up the eggs. Done of them are better than others, but overall they are fun. I didn’t balance the colors well, so if you do this, I wish you better luck. I like the dots more than the stripes.

The larger dots were actually just the handle end of the paint brushes. 🙂

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It’s not easy to do the stripes. I need more practice, but the painters tape is so much more convenient than the tape designed for nails.

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And, finally, it’s done! I really hope it lasts. It took a while. 🙂

My son says it looks like it came off Pinterest. I will take that as a compliment.

And it’s not going to be mixing with food or stored with food or heated with food. And nai lpolish doesn’t come with warnings not to bite your nails anyway, so it’s pretty safe. IANAL, YMMV, etc.

 

 

 

Food, pulses, Uncategorized

Bean burgers

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Back to my plan of cooking through my clipped recipe file! I have been cooking, just not updating. So anyway, I remembered about the idea when looking through the old posts, and although a bit late today, I will jump right in. With tonight’s dinner, bean burgers.

These were printed off the internet, with no quantities to the ingredients. And I just changed what I did see to round it out more. They smell great, and I can’t wait to cook them and eat them! Trying to serve with polenta and a green salad and some sauteed cauliflower (it’s in the fridge).

Polenta is in the Instant Pot. I have been making a lot of polenta lately because I accidentally bought an extra package of cornmeal and am trying to eat through it. The Instant Pot makes polenta simple and hands off, so now I am making polenta all the time. 🙂

Here’s the recipe for the polenta, barley, and salt potatoes. 🙂

And an IP is here. I recommend it, if you like beans. [amazon_link asins=’B00FLYWNYQ’ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’002′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’227c125e-ad77-11e8-81ea-b56f006ec6a3′]

I chopped up some celery, cauliflower and tomato to cook fast in some butter. The lemon and scallion is to finish it off the heat.

So tasty! I made these a few hours ago, and put them in the fridge as is. They held together well and flipped nicely. There is an egg in them so it’s not vegan. I bet aquafaba would work, but I went with the egg.

Oil is ready to cook in when it thinks out and shimmers. You want to leave space for the burgers to cook and not steam.

Those will go for 5min and then be flipped. Five more and then dressed on the plate.

That’s the spiced mayonnaise, and pickled cukes that go on top. It was a hit, although DH suggested the cucumber be chopped like a relish to make it easier to eat with the burgers. Or croquettes— coquettes are breaded and have a crispy outside nad a creamy inside. That’s way more what these are like than a ‘burger’.

And the recipe:

3 cloves garlic

1 cup cilantro leaves whir in processor (or chop?)

I used 3 cups of leftover beans from the Make Your Own Beans I posted earlier.

1 T soy sauce

1 T rice vinegar

1T dark sesame oil

1 teaspoon brown sugar

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp siracha

pinch salt

whir together until mixed but still chunky. add

1 egg (or 3 T bean juice) and whir until mixed. You do NOT want a paste.

put into a bowl and mix in ~ 3/4 cups of bread crumbs (until it holds together) Let sit while making the condiments. Then make into patties (I made 7), and bread with a mix of

1/3 cup breadcrumbs

3 T sesame seeds

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cayenne powder

Refrigerate several hours. Heat oil in a pan on medium heat, add burgers, and fry on each side about 5 minutes, turning once until golden brown.

Serve topped with a dollop of mayo and spoonful of relish.

Relish:
1/2 diced cucumber (1/2 a medium sized one) with seeds removed

1 T rice vinegar

1/2 tsp brown sugar

a bit of lemon zest

pinch salt

let sit to cure

Mayonnaise

1/3 cup mayonaise

3 T cilantro, minced

1/2 tsp sesame oil

1/3 tsp siracha

mix well.

And for lunch today, a cold crumbled burger on green salad. Still good!

Eggs, Food, health, pulses, weight loss, weight loss

Make Your Own Beans or Ful Medames

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This morning I stepped on the scale and the number had gone up instead of down or staying in place. I had had nothing planned for dinner tonight (late on menu planning) so I have decided to make what our son lovingly called ‘make your own beans’ when he was a toddler. It’s basically an ancient recipe and possibly one if the oldest street foods, so I have been told. All it is is beans, cooked, served with seasonings- traditionally salt, olive oil, garlic and pepper.

Variations include cooking eggs in their shells with the beans and adding onion skins or coffee to the cooking liquor. We’ve decided that coffee makes the best ful for us, so that’s what I now use. 🙂 I also prefer darker beans for this recipe, as it’s dependent on the beans for flavor.

So I am going to start with three cups of these dark red beans (about a pound) in the pressure cooker. This would feed four people, if they like beans.

Then I nestle six eggs in the beans.

And then I add about a cup of brewed coffee and a quart of water. If I were using anything other than my Instant Pot, I would add more water and watch it more. I have made this in the slow cooker, on the range and in the oven. I have not yet tried it in the ashes of a campfire, but I really want to. 🙂

And that is it. Cool until the beans are done. I have all day and the pot will take under an hour. Other cooking versions take different times. The next step will come at serving, so by the magic of the internet…

Here are the beans, done and able to be crushed by the back of a spoon.

They will sit like that until serving time. Which is now. 🙂 We have sourdough bread, salt, oil, pepper and fresh garlic.

You can mash it together and serve like hummus. Make it into a wrap. Serve as a side dish. Skip the egg. Add tomato, chili, parsley, any seasoning you want. It’s a simple, healthy, filling meal that should be on rotation in any home that loves pulses.